OMER KHAYYAM (1048 – 1131) Born 1048 in Nishapur, Omar Khayyam is a Persian poet, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician. Numerous scientists have put Omar Khayyam within the borders of Mu’tazila and Batiniyya. Omer Khayyam is also called the very first anti-war activist in the history. He was given the byname Khayyam, which means “tent maker”, after his father’s craft. Even though his quatrains were translated to Turkish by various translators, the ones which endeared his works to Turkish people were translated by Sabahattin Eyüboğlu.
To understand the universe, Omar Khayyam left dominant Islamic culture in which he was raised, and by a rare literal success, he expressed his reflections he made within himself as quatrains. Khayyam was also a very skillful mathematician. He’s the first scientist to use the binomial expansion. He especially deepened his studies in number theory and algebra. In one of his studies he has written on equations with three unknowns, in the place of the unknown, he uses the Arabic word “shay”, which means “the thing”. Later while this work of his was translated to other different languages, this particular word was replaced bay “xay” in Spanish. Over time it has been shortened to its first letter and its initial “x” was used as the symbol the unknown. It appears that he reflects on the world, existence, Allah, the state and social organizational forms in his quatrains freely and without boundaries. While reflecting, he neither sticks to the society he lives in, nor the ones who lived before him, without accepting the boundaries his predecessors have drawn, in one sense, he redefines the world, mankind and existence by his own mind, thus being ahead of his time, Khayyam reaches universality. But one should not forget that the times Khayyam lived had the substructure to create one of the biggest thinkers of the history and a thinker who can get ahead of his time like him. Witnessing the times in which philosophy was cherished the way it should be, and the probably most enlightened one of the Islamic World, living in an atmosphere that a synthesized Middle Eastern culture (Turkish-Indian-Arabian-Chinese-Byzantine) started to appear, Khayyam had a relatively neutral and scientific education and had the ability to be freely occupied with philosophy in a Muslim society who doesn’t define philosophy as a sin. As far as anyone knows, he has written 158 quatrains in his own name.
Khayyam also is in a crucial state for world science history. He has created the world’s first observatory. He invented the Jalali calendar which is way more sensitive and precise than the Gregorian and Lunar Hijri calendar we use in the present day. In reality, the theory taught in schools called “Pascal’s Triangle” is created by Omar Khayyam. He is one of the leading scientists in the world in mathematics and astronomy and it’s known that he has various studies in the given fields. His birthday is precisely known, thanks to his profession in calendars, as in many other fields, which allowed him to calculate his own birthday by total accuracy. Khayyam seems to have spent the most fruitful scientific years of his life in Isfahan. But with the assassination of Malikshah in 1092, he returned to Khurasan, spending the rest of his life in Marw and Nishapur.
WRITINGS OF OMER KHAYYAM The names for 18 of the Hayyam’s works are known. He has written many works in various branches of science
Ziyc-i Melikşahi. (On astronomy and calendars, dedicated to Malikshah)
Kitabün fi'l Burhan ül Sıhhat-ı Turuk ül Hind. (On geometry)
Risaletün fi Berahin İl Cebr ve Mukabele. (On algebra and equations)
Müşkilat'ül Hisab. (On arithmetical)
İlm-i Külliyat (On general principals)
Nevruzname (On determination of calendars and new year’s day)
Risaletün fil İhtiyal li Marifet. (On finding the percentage of gold and silver in an object made of gold or silver. One of its copies is in the Gotha Library in Germany)
Risaletün fi Şerhi ma Eşkele min Musaderat (On analytical method of one of Euclid’s problems. One of its copies is in the Leiden Library in The Netherlands. Translated to French by F. Woepcke)
Risaletün fi Vücud (On discussion of ontology in philosophy. One of its copies is in British Library)
Muhtasarun fi't Tabiiyat (About physics)
Risaletün fi'l Kevn vet Teklif (About philosophy)
Levazim'ül Emkine (About cities’ climate and weather changes)
Fil Cevab Selaseti Mesâil ve fi Keşfil Hicab (Answer three questions and about the contrast in the world)
Mizan'ül Hikem
Abdurrahman'el Neseviye Cevab
Nizamülmülk (Biography of a friend who is a vizier)
Born 1048 in Nishapur, Omar Khayyam is a Persian poet, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician. Numerous scientists have put Omar Khayyam within the borders of Mu’tazila and Batiniyya. Omer Khayyam is also called the very first anti-war activist in the history. He was given the byname Khayyam, which means “tent maker”, after his father’s craft. Even though his quatrains were translated to Turkish by various translators, the ones which endeared his works to Turkish people were translated by Sabahattin Eyüboğlu.
To understand the universe, Omar Khayyam left dominant Islamic culture in which he was raised, and by a rare literal success, he expressed his reflections he made within himself as quatrains. Khayyam was also a very skillful mathematician. He’s the first scientist to use the binomial expansion. He especially deepened his studies in number theory and algebra. In one of his studies he has written on equations with three unknowns, in the place of the unknown, he uses the Arabic word “shay”, which means “the thing”. Later while this work of his was translated to other different languages, this particular word was replaced bay “xay” in Spanish. Over time it has been shortened to its first letter and its initial “x” was used as the symbol the unknown.
It appears that he reflects on the world, existence, Allah, the state and social organizational forms in his quatrains freely and without boundaries. While reflecting, he neither sticks to the society he lives in, nor the ones who lived before him, without accepting the boundaries his predecessors have drawn, in one sense, he redefines the world, mankind and existence by his own mind, thus being ahead of his time, Khayyam reaches universality. But one should not forget that the times Khayyam lived had the substructure to create one of the biggest thinkers of the history and a thinker who can get ahead of his time like him. Witnessing the times in which philosophy was cherished the way it should be, and the probably most enlightened one of the Islamic World, living in an atmosphere that a synthesized Middle Eastern culture (Turkish-Indian-Arabian-Chinese-Byzantine) started to appear, Khayyam had a relatively neutral and scientific education and had the ability to be freely occupied with philosophy in a Muslim society who doesn’t define philosophy as a sin. As far as anyone knows, he has written 158 quatrains in his own name.
Khayyam also is in a crucial state for world science history. He has created the world’s first observatory. He invented the Jalali calendar which is way more sensitive and precise than the Gregorian and Lunar Hijri calendar we use in the present day. In reality, the theory taught in schools called “Pascal’s Triangle” is created by Omar Khayyam. He is one of the leading scientists in the world in mathematics and astronomy and it’s known that he has various studies in the given fields. His birthday is precisely known, thanks to his profession in calendars, as in many other fields, which allowed him to calculate his own birthday by total accuracy.
Khayyam seems to have spent the most fruitful scientific years of his life in Isfahan. But with the assassination of Malikshah in 1092, he returned to Khurasan, spending the rest of his life in Marw and Nishapur.
WRITINGS OF OMER KHAYYAM
The names for 18 of the Hayyam’s works are known. He has written many works in various branches of science
Prepared by Dilara Omurtak
REFERENCES
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96mer_Hayyam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam#Early_life
http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Khayyam_BEA.htm
http://www.gelisenbeyin.net/omer-hayyam.html
http://www.felsefe.gen.tr/omer_hayyam_kimdir.asp